Skip to main content

A Day In The Life of a Manny In Largo


This represents, pretty much, my Mondays thru Fridays.  I serve as a Manny for a kid named Alfred.  

4:00 AM -  Alarm goes off and I may snooze one cycle.  I arise, get dressed, and head over to the 24 hour gym.  Since I'm almost always the only one there I put the TV on a news station and then treadmill for at least 3 miles/1 hour.  

5:10 AM - 5:30 AM - I get back to my cell here at Waterboard, fix a pot of coffee and head to the computer to do some reading (New York Times, New York Post and Washington Post).  Catch up my fantasy baseball teams (summer) or football teams (winter).  Check mail.  

6:00 AM - Start watching Morning Joe.  Scarborough (the Conservative) is obnoxious, Mika (the Liberal) mugs at camera but the roundtable regulars are the best on TV.  Geist, Halperin, Haass, Todd, Heilemann, Barnacle, Robinson, Ratliff and Steele, among others are excellent.  Their guest list is pretty damn good, too.  Another plus to MJ is no one does any cooking and they don't go outside to amble among the "Whooing" tourists like the other morning shows.  

7:30 AM - My charge, Miss Alfred arrives.   For first half hour we change diaper (if necessary) and fix bottle (if needed).  

8:00 AM - 10:00/12:00 - 

Classes begin: 

-- Problem Solving 101  


-- Personal Hygiene



--  Modern Dance





10:00 - 12:00 AM for Next 2 Hours

Nap Time.  The greatest part of the day.  

2:00 PM - 3:00 PM



There is a McDonald's down the street as well as a Burger King.  I put Alfred in a stroller and we used to go to McDonald's primarily (because it was farther away) and have a cup of ice cream.  On one trip a couple weeks ago their ice cream machine broke down and the manager gave us three complimentary cookies for our disappointment.  We split one and tucked the other two to give to Norah when we saw her at day's end.   




This is a ramp that takes us to the 2-lane drive thru area of McDonald's.  We have to cross over in order to get back home.  Can you believe a car honked at us once?  A McDonald's employee who was sitting close by have a smoke just shook their head and said, "People".  Jeez, who honks at a guy with a stroller?







On our way home once we saw the nearby crossing school crossing guard stop traffic for someone who wasn't a student, and I thought, oh, neat, maybe she'll do it for Alfred and I.  The next day, armed with a cookie from McDonald's, we strolled on down and darned if she didn't stop traffic on this busy road just for us.  She got a cookie in the deal.  Now, we use her on about half of our trips.  But we always take her a cookie.  We pay for our passage. 



And then we head for home.

3:00 - 4:00 Free time.  Nothing scheduled for this hour.  

4:00 - 4:30 Judge Judy.  She loves her Judy.  

4:30 - 5:30 -  Outside Activities.  We put on her shoes and she likes walking outside.  She has also started climbing so she likes the stairs.  I have one eye out for her and one trained for the black Toyota that will be picking her up.  And then its MY free time.  Whew.  Well, that's the whole day.  That's why I get paid the big bucks.  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Flashback Friday

Class, Or Lack Thereof The Dwight Vice gravestone in Oquawka, Illinois. I bring this old chestnut out every so often just to remind me that class is classless.  Dwight Vice was killed in his home near Oquawka in 2001.  It was one of those things that can generate crime:  two guys thought Dwight had a lot of money stashed at home because of his pot-selling sideline to supplement his fishing job.   Not really one of those big drug deals gone-bad things.  Marijuana was, according to the trial, about the only stuff Dwight sold.   But these two guys barge into the house and killed Dwight and attempted to kill his 11 year old kid, Darryl, before they took off with what money they could find.   His son, now 23, was stabbed in the back and left for dead.  He survived and is wheelchair bound and has undergone several surgeries to repair his wounds.  He will be paralyzed for life.   None of this is pleasant.  Reading the f...

The Mary Davis Home - Part 2

None of these pictures were taken by me,  they came right from the MDH website.  I am posting these so that friends who have never seen inside where I worked can gain access.  After 27 years I have many stories, tales and acquaintances.  But, I wouldn't know how to express them appropriately in a few paragraphs.  I enjoyed 98% of my stay there and hope I made a difference in the lives of a fraction of the kids who entered.  The original MDH at this site was just the front part.  The large red-roofed area in back was added on in the 90's. This is the Jerry Carlton library.  It was unofficially named after one of the counselors who truly loved the place.   He passed away around 2002, I think.  Mr. Farber looks like he is explaining a few things to a client. The classroom. Activity area with the gym behind the windows. Another shot of the classroom. It was a little different area to teach since we had 2 classes and 2 teachers i...

Flashback Friday - Cold Case - Part One

53 years ago today, Gordon "Peel" Duncan walked into the dark post office in Seaton Illinois and was brutally assaulted by an individual or individuals.  He died two days later.  The murder was never solved.     Gordon Duncan was one of the publishers of the Seaton Independent, a weekly newspaper in town that started in the late 1800's and stopped publishing in the 60's.     We  boys were just young children when this took place, but we have been fascinated by it ever since.  The imagination of kids, I suppose or maybe the fact that it was unsolved.  Regardless, this was a big deal in our little lives.  For our parents it tended to shatter the idea that Seaton, our town, was safe.  That it could fend off the forces of evil in the world, that in our little universe we would be impervious to harm was gone forever.  For us kids I don't suppose we were old enough to know real fear.  Fear for us was not getting our list ...